Lordsmurf, Sanlyn, facp, and all contributors to this thread,
First and foremost, thank you all for your inputs but I don't want to cause a divorce
I've shot dozens of Hi-8 tapes with a Sony HandyCam CCD-TRV65; I've shot numerous additional Digital 8 tapes with Sony Digital8 HandyCam DCR TRV-350. Both types of tapes will play in the TRV-350 and there is a choice of S-Video or DV firewire output on the TRV-350.
Based on what I've read so far, it appears as though the optimal flow for the Hi-8 analog tapes is to use the S-Video output through a TBC and an input device such as the ATI600 USB I have already bought here. My understanding is that using the DV output would cause loss of information since an analog to DV conversion is taking place. True, false, or subject to debate?
The question is what to do with the Digital 8 tapes. Since I assume they were recorded digitally, it would appear that the DV output is optimal. In any case, I'm not sure using the S-Video output with a TBC and the ATI600 would provide any improvement over the quality of the output since the source is Digital 8. Am I on track here? I've already done both the Hi-8 and Digital 8 with the DV (firewire) output but could redo if S-Video is the way to go.
PS, I don't really care about the file size. Hard drive space is cheap and I'd rather start with the cleanest file rather than the smallest.